When he was done, he scurried back like my skin burned him. “Okay, now leave us alone, please.”
“Don’t fuck around with her, Tony,” Gage said. “I’m not kidding when I say she’s dangerous.”
“Yeah, no. I know that,” Tony said.
Gage backed out of the room, closing the door as I watched from my hazy vantage point up near the slanted ceiling.
Once he was gone, Tony let out an explosive breath and crept closer to me again, hands upraised as though to calm a wild animal. He crouched next to me, lifting a finger to his lips for quiet, and quickly undid the tangled knots in the belt, freeing my wrist.
I blinked, abruptly back in my body as he backed away again.
“Jez,” he said, “what theactual fuck?”
I licked my lips, trying to bring moisture back to my parched mouth and throat.
“Shouldn’t I be askingyouthat?” I shot back viciously, cradling my wrist to my chest. The belt still looped around it, dangling free.
“Why—” He cut himself off and shook his head. “I’m not the one going around killing people!”
I bared my teeth, trying to summon righteous anger to blot out the betrayal. “No. You’re the one playing gofer for a pack of omega sex traffickers,” I snarled.
He stared at me like I’d grown a second head. “What the hell are youtalkingabout, Jez?”
“Omega. Sex. Traffickers.” I bit out each word viciously. “Or have you conveniently failed to notice the little kids with bruised faces being taken in and out of this house in unmarked vans?”
Tony’s head shook slowly back and forth. “What? No... Jez, you’ve got it all turned around. Sometimes they help out omegas in trouble, that’s all.”
Pity joined the ugly slurry of hurt, fear, and anger sloshing around in my stomach.
“You can’t really be that naïve,” I told him. “Wake up and look around, Tony. You’re a fucking accessory to kidnapping and child sexual abuse.”
He took a step back so abruptly that he nearly tripped on one of the bags still lying beside the doorway.
“Don’t youdaretalk to me about child sexual abuse,” he said, his voice wavering.
“Why?” I taunted, still desperate to use anger as a shield against everything else. “Did I touch a nerve?”
He steadied himself against the doorframe, an angry flush replacing his unnatural paleness. “You know that asshole you killed in my apartment? Right before you ran off and left me to deal with a dead body on my own? That was my stepdad. He raped me for years until I finally got away and moved here. Then he tracked me down and nearly started up again, right where he’d left off.”
I stiffened.
“So, don’t you come at me about that shit,” he went on, his tone flat and deadly. “Becauseyou’rethe one who doesn’t know what the hell they’re talking about.”
My anger rose to match his, finally giving me the strength to climb onto shaky feet and point an accusing finger at his chest.
“You think I don’t? My father auctioned my first heat to the highest bidders so he could pay off his gambling debts! Then he sold me to traffickers in Canada so no one would find out! Traffickers likethis fucking pack!”
My voice had risen, high and shrill—loud enough that there was no way the sharp alpha ears outside could fail to hear what I was saying. I wasso angry, though. Too angry to care what happened to me next.
Tony stood staring at me, his mouth hanging open, breathing hard. And sure enough, a moment later the door creaked open. Gage loomed in the doorway with his ever-present gun. His sharp hazel eyes took in my untied wrist, and he let out a gusty sigh.
“Goddamn it, Tony,” he said, sounding more tired than anything. Then his heavy gaze returned to me and settled there, pressing down on my shoulders like a physical force. “Still, I guess we’re finally getting somewhere, at least. Sounds like you and me need to get a few things straight,Jez.”
